karkadannfandomcom-20200214-history
Escornau
Escornáu or Ehcornáu is a legendary creature known in Spanish Extremadura. Sometime around XVI century, it terrorized the village of Ahigal and its surroundings. There are two versions of the legend. According to the first, it was send by God as punishment for the sins of the village inhabitants. In various reports, it was born from a stallion and a sow, or from a mare and a boar, or from a stallion and a cow, or from a bull and a mare. It had the hindquarters of a horse, the forequarters of a bull, the head of a boar and a single spiral horn rising vertically from the middle of its forehead. According to the other version, it was born out of a foul union between a lonely shepherd and one of his sheep. In this case, it was a mixture of a ram and a boar with scaly skin and a single horn. Its only weapon was its horn, measured by some informants at three meters in length. It sharpened it on the rocks and attacked everyone, including shepherds, peasants and cattle, goring them to death. While it left dead men on the ground, it held special wrath towards women, as it pierced them and carried their lifeless bodies around like a trophy. The Escornau sometimes ate humans, but more frequently killed them for the sole pleasure of killing, as its favorite food was pigeons living along the nearby stream. The people of Ahigal tried unsuccessfully to kill the creature, but arrows and bullets bounced off its thick skin. Finally they understood that if it was a divine punishment for their sins, only by divine power will they be able to vanquish it. Procession organized by the Order of the True Cross ended in tragedy after the monster attacked the praying people. However, another one, presided by the Order of the Rosary, was successful. When the beast moved towards women carrying the banner of the Holy Virgin, a divine force paralyzed it, made it swell and burst into pieces. The hill on which this happened was named "Canchu la sangri", from the red coloration left by Escornau's blood. The village's population was overjoyed. The horn of the creature was brought to Ahigal and displayed in the Hermitage of Christ in remembrance of the tragedy that affected the village. Soon it became famous for medicinal properties and rose to the status of a relic. Around 50 years later, the bishop of Coria visited the village and was shocked to find the people trusting more in magical powders from the horn than in prayers to Christ. He decided that the only possible solution is to take the horn away. Its later whereabouts are unknown. Origin The story is unmistakably inspired by the unicorn legend, which says the unicorn is a wild animal impossible to capture by hunters but possible to be tamed by a virgin (the Holy Virgin in this case) and killed. A similarity can be pointed between the Escornau and the Kubanochoerus – a prehistoric species of boar, growing to huge sizes and sporting a single horn-like protrusion on its skull. Bibliography * José María Dominguez Moreno. "La Leyenda del Escornau. Una versión extremeña del Mito del Unicornio". Revista de Folklore no. 68. 1986. Category:Unicorns Category:Iberian unicorns Category:Unicorn index